newsbrief

ISLAMABAD (INP): PSO on Thursday suspended fuel supply to PIA for not clearing the dues. Anotice regarding payment of dues worth Rs12 billion was sent to the national carrier two days back. It was clearly notified that the oil company would suspend supply if dues were not cleared by December 11. PIA has failed to release money despite repeated requests. Under the agreement, PIA is required to make payment within seven days of oil delivery.On the other hand, spokesperson for the PIA told that they have started buying fuel from other suppliers, thus, flight operations would not be affected.

Silkbank meets SBP capital adequacy requirement

KARACHI (Staff Reporter): Silkbank has injected Rs 2 billion in capital, successfully meeting SBP capital adequacy requirement of 10 per cent. Silkbank has already received a major equity injection commitment from an international investor and has announced issuance of right shares which will take its total equity to Rs 16 billion. Silkbank made a significant turnaround in 2014 by declaring an operating profit of Rs. 458 million for the first nine months of the year. This reflects an impressive increase of 182% over the same period last year. During the Jan-Sep 2014 period, profit after tax was 113% higher whereas, earnings per share reflected a remarkable growth of 117% against the same period last year.

With enhanced capital Silkbank’s business momentum is expected to further accelerate in 2015 and beyond. Silkbank’s equity injection is a testament of investors belief in the bank’s success and will significantly boost the depositor confidence and trust.

It may be noted that Silkbank is backed by strong international sponsors, which include IFC (World Bank Group), Nomura European Investments, Bank Muscat and Sinthos Capital.

Sindh to give Rs1,000 Guzara Allowance to 84,000 beneficiaries

KARACHI (Staff Reporter): The Sindh govt and Sindh Bank have signed an MoU for distribution of Guzara Allowance among the 84000 beneficiaries of Zakat fund at the rate of Rs1000 per month to each through Sindh Bank ATM and ensure transparency in the Zakat fund distribution. The MoU was signed by Secretary Zakat & Ushr Sindh Ghulam Mustafa Phul and President of Sindh Bank Bilal Shaikh. This ceremony was witnessed by CM Qaim Ali Shah, Minister for finance Syed Murad Ali Shah, Minister for Zakat & Ushr Dost Mohammad Rahimoon, Khalid Latif, Special Assistant to CM Waqar Mehdi, Coordinator to CM Siddique Abubhai and other officers from Sindh Bank and Zakat Department.

Talking on the occasion Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that PPP has always served the poor segment of society. He said that PPP, in its previous and present government, has launched the policies at least to supplement poor people in their day to day expensive.

He said that previously, the Guzara Allowance had been distributed among the beneficiaries at the deduction of service rate by distributing organisations but, this government has decided to arrange this distribution without deduction of service rate and save more money for the poor people one hand and shift the distribution online to ensure its transparency. He appreciated the spirit of management of Sindh bank for being agreed to start this service without its interest and termed it as noble work.

CCP extends last date for comments submission

islamabad (Staff Reporter): CCP has extended the last date for submitting public comments on its updated Competition Impact Assessment study of the Automobile Sector in Pakistan from 8 December 2014 to 8 January 2015, in response to the request from certain quarters to extend the date. CCP is mandated to carry out research to improve the understanding of competition issues facing the Pakistan economy and has initiated sectoral Competition Impact Assessment studies of the key economic sectors as a major component of that mandate.The study on automobile sector can be downloaded from the website of the Commission, www.cc.gov.pk and the last date of submitting comments is 8 January 2015.

KARACHI (Staff Reporter): During the week ending December 05, 2014, SBP’s liquid foreign reserves increased by $981 million to $9,203 million as compared to $8,222 million in the previous week. The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at US$13,922.4 million on December 05.The break-up of the foreign reserves position shoed that foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan were $9,203.1 million, net foreign reserves held by banks $4,719.3 million and total liquid foreign reserves are $13,922.4 million. During the week, SBP received $1,000 million against issuance of Pakistan Sukuk bonds and $41 million from multilateral, bilateral and other sources.

During the week, SBP made payments of $83 million on account of external debt servicing and other official payments.